PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH PUBLIC HEARINGS

The Presidential Search Screening Committee will hold the following campus hearings for the community-at-large and the college community to express comments regarding the search for a new president.

2:00 p.m. Sept. 24, 2007 Pensacola Campus, Hagler Auditorium Rm. 252
2:00 p.m. Sept. 25, 2007 Warrington Campus, Health Sciences Bldg., Rm. 3736
2:00 p.m. Sept. 26, 2007 Milton Campus, Building 4900, Rm. 4902
7:00 p.m. Sept. 27, 2007 Pensacola Campus, Hagler Auditorium, Rm. 252

I'll be attending each of the hearings and hope that you will attend at least one of them. This is your chance to say what qualities, characteristics and experience you want the next president of PJC to possess.

I'll be on each campus visiting around prior to the hearing so let me know if you'd like to meet with me then. See you soon!

PRESIDENTIAL SCREENING PROCESS TO BEGIN

This Friday, September 14th, will be the first meeting of the Presidential Screening Committee. The faculty who are serving on this committee are Dr. Jimmy Hightower,Business; Mr. Keith Prendergast, English; and me. At the meeting on the 14th, we'll receive an overview of what activities are being planned and what our role will be in the process. I'll post a summary after the meeting, but please contact Jimmy, Keith or me when you have questions or concerns or just want make sure your opinion is heard.

NOMINEES FOR PRESIDENTIAL SCREENING COMMITTEE NAMED

The PJCFA Executive Board will nominate Dr. Jimmy Hightower (Business/Legal Assisting), Mr. Keith Prendergast (English/Communications) and Ms. Charlotte Sweeney (LRC) as the faculty members to be appointed to the Presidential Screening Committee. The nominees must be confirmed by the Pensacola Junior College Board of Trustees.

TO CONSULT OR NOT TO CONSULT

Last night's Board of Trustees' meeting was pretty ho-hum until the topic of the Presidential Search came up.

Should a consultant group be hired to assist in the presidential search process? One BOT member was very much in favor of hiring a consultant. Her concern is that PJC presidential search should seek out the very broadest, deepest, and best qualified applicants. Can that caliber of applicants be found through the traditional channels of journal and newspaper advertising? Through networking? She believes that consultant groups may be aware of candidates who might not apply unless contacted by a consultant.

A number of BOT members feel comfortable with Dr. McLeod (who has been an active participant in the last two presidential searches) and other PJC people being completely in charge of the advertising, head-hunting aspects of getting qualified people into the applicant pool.

When it was all said and done, it was left up to the Presidential Search Process Committee to decide whether or not to hire a consultant group.

The other question that generated some discussion was the minimum qualifications - which are minimum. The minimum qualifications are an earned doctorate from an regionally accredited university or college. That's pretty darn minimum. Personally, I feel that the preferred qualities make up for keeping the minimum so minimal. But the question that arose was whether or not it was necessary for a candidate to have an earned doctorate. This topic had been the discussed at length during the Presidential Search Process Committee's meetings earlier this summer. After more discussion by the BOT, it was agreed that the minimum qualification would still be an earned doctorate.

Comments on using consultants? Requiring an earned doctorate?

Finally, it was announced that Mr. Vincent Andry will be the new President of the Board and Mr. John O'Connor will be the new Vice Chair.

PRESIDENTIAL SCREENING COMMITTEE

Over the summer, I have been serving on the PJC Presidential Search Process Committee. This committee had 5 charges from the Board of Trustees: to recommend (1) the job description for the new PJC President, (2) the required and preferred qualities of the new president, (3) a tentative schedule for the search process, (4) a proposed screening committee list and (5) a list of search firm consultants.

At the June Board of Trustee's meeting, the Board accepted the recommendations. Now the real work begins!

PJCFA has been asked to nominate 3 full-time faculty to serve on the Presidential Screening Committee. This will be a very serious undertaking which will demand a great deal of time and attention from each committee member.

The schedule calls for the first meeting of the screening committee to be held September 14th. There will be three or four public hearings in September to get input from PJC faculty and staff as well as the Pensacola area community. Committee members are expected to attend these.

The first viewing of the applications will be at mid-November. The expectation based on previous searches is that there will be from 30-50 applicants who will make it through the initial screening process and will be considered by the committee. Each committee member will have to review and score each application. There will be committee meetings to discuss the application reviews as well as committee assignments.

On December 3rd, the committee will recommend 4-8 applicants to the Board of Trustees.

That's a lot of work to be done in a short time, but very important work.

If you are interested in serving on this committee or would like to nominate a faculty member (with his or her permission), please let me know by July 16th. My email is csweeney@pjc.edu. The PJCFA Executive Board will be meeting on July 18th to discuss the nominations.